C-17 Shipping InSight Mars Spacecraft to Vandenberg Air Force Base

March 01, 2018

A C-17 cargo aircraft carrying NASA's InSight spacecraft flew from Buckley Air Force Base, Denver, to Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, on February 28, 2018. The spacecraft was being shipped from Lockheed Martin Space, Denver, where InSight was built and tested. Its launch period opens May 5, 2018.

InSight, short for Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport, is the first mission dedicated to studying the deep interior of Mars. Its findings will advance understanding of the early history of all rocky planets, including Earth.

The InSight Project is managed by JPL, a division of Caltech in Pasadena, for the NASA Science Mission Directorate, Washington. InSight is part of NASA's Discovery Program, which is managed by NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama.